TEXT: John 16:33

SUBJECT: Follow the Lamb #15: Be of Good Cheer

Tonight, with the Lord’s blessing, we will finish our study of Follow the Lamb by Horatius Bonar. The book was written, about 1840, to help disciples of Christ become better disciples of Christ. You cannot be a Christian without also being a disciple. The words are interchangeable. In fact, disciple, appears far more often in the Bible than Christian, and rightly so because the former was the word our Lord chose to describe His people, while the latter was a tag the pagans put on them. Let us remember, then, that to be a Christian is to be a disciple, one who both learns from the Lord—and follows Him!

Thus far, the book has mostly told us what to do. If you want to be a good disciple, study the Bible, for example, keep company with the People of God, and Put away boastfulness and love of pride.

So much for what to do. At the end, we’re told how to do them. The last chapter deals with the disciple’s attitude, what it should be and why. The title speaks for itself, Be of good cheer.

The chapter begins with a quick reminder of the need for good cheer.

The book was written during a Revival in Scotland. Many were flocking to Christ and there was great excitement for God everywhere. But the excitement did not last forever, and many who said they were saved became backsliders—some cooled off for Christ and became nominal Christians, while others renounced the faith and openly despised the Lord.

Why did these people turn way from Christ? Theologically, it’s because God never saved them in the first place. Every plant that My Heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up… But practically, there were other reasons, causes for which the backsliders were fully responsible.

In His parable of the Sower, the Lord gives three reasons why the Word of God so often fails with men. They are: The cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the pleasures of this life.

The cares of the world are those humdrum things that take up so much of our time: working, paying bills, cooking, washing dishes, going to school, mowing the lawn, fixing the car, making up with your wife, spending time with the kids, and so on. These things are not sinful, of course, but they have a way of overwhelming us and making us forget God and His Word.

The deceitfulness of riches is the security we feel when things are going well. You don’t have to be rich to be deceived by money. I’m far from wealthy, but I’ve had the same job for over twenty years, I’ve got a pretty good house, a low mortgage, and most of my bills paid most of the time. Why do I need to cry to God the way a man does who doesn’t have a job or is $100,000 in debt? That’s the deceitfulness of riches—or in my class the deceitfulness of lower-middle classness.

The pleasures of this life are not the sinful pleasures we often think of, but the good ones, which become sinful because they are worshiped in the place of the God who gave them. A happy marriage can be a great hindrance to holiness. Not to mention other good things like a beautiful home, fine clothing, an expensive car and so on.

If these lawful things can choke the Word in our souls, what about the unlawful things that rain down on us every day? The devil is against us, personally, he fights every believer hammer and tong. His servants are right there to help him in his evil work.

Add to this our own weakness, partly the result of being fallen and partly of being human and not Divine. The holiest saint gets tired, and being tired makes him cranky and puts him out of the mood to pray or watch against temptation.

All these things (and more) discourage us. They wear us out physically and beat us up spiritually. To get through life, we need more than a set of rules, a sense of duty, and a resolve to do our duty no matter what.

We need good cheer.

And we have it! Bonar names six things that encourage us to stay with Christ, grow in grace, and make it to heaven. We’ll look at each of them briefly.

First we have the gentleness of Christ.

The biggest discouragement we face is not the devil, the world, or the flesh; it’s God. We commit a big sin or many little ones and we wonder if He still loves us (or ever did). If we were in His place, we wouldn’t put up with us, and why should He?

The short answer to that is: Jesus Christ is not like you and me! He is not short-sighted or hot-tempered. He loves the weak, the foolish, and the sinful. If He didn’t, He wouldn’t love anybody, because everybody is weak, foolish, and sinful. We think the Great Christians weren’t that way—standing up to kings, suffering in the jungles, and so on, for Christ’s sake. But if you read their journals and letters, they all see themselves as weak, foolish, and sinful. George Whitefield may have been the greatest Evangelist since Paul, but on his deathbed he cried, I am only now beginning to be a Christian.

Why doesn’t the Lord lower the boom on us as we do on others? Hosea 11:8-9 tells us why:

The reason He doesn’t give up on us is because He is not like we are! He is like His Father—gentle, slow to wrath, abounding in mercy.

Nothing encourages a sinner more than the gentleness of Christ. Be of good cheer—the King is kind and patient.

Next we have the power of God,

It’s wonderful to have a good friend when you need one. But what if your good friend cannot help you? What if you were accused of murder, and I volunteered to defend you in court? You’d appreciate my love, but you wouldn’t want me as your attorney. I couldn’t get you off in court. You’d want more than a loving friend, you’d want a powerful one.

And that’s what God is: Your Friend who is also the Almighty! This is what Paul is getting at at the end of Romans 8: If God be for us, Who can be against us?

Many others can be against us with God for us. But what are the many compared to the One? What are Satan and his friends next to the Living and True God? They are creatures, He is the Creator; they are servants, He is the Lord; they are defendants, He is the Judge.

God is for us. He will use His power for our good. Sometimes it will seem obvious to us; other times, it won’t. But whether it seems so or doesn’t, it is so because God says it is and He tells the truth.

The power of God means be of good cheer.

Next, we have the Presence of the Holy Spirit,

A little boy is scared of the dark. One night, his parents put him to bed, and he started crying. They told him they were just outside his door and they’d make sure nothing bad would happen to him. But, even though he believed them, he wanted more than their word. He couldn’t relax or fall asleep unless his mom or dad lay down next to him. When the parent did it, he dropped off right away.

Who’s the little boy in my story? We are. We know God is up there, that He keeps His eye on us, and that He has promised to take care of us. This ought to be enough for us, but it isn’t. So, instead of scolding us for our fear and unbelief, God lies down next to us. By the Holy Spirit. We often hear the Holy Spirit is in our souls—and He is. But where’s the soul? Is it in the head or the chest or in the King James Version, is in the bowels? I can’t say where my soul is, but I know where my body is—and the Holy Spirit is in it! I Corinthians 3:16 says the Christian’s body is the Temple of God. Because God lives there by His Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is closer to us than we are to ourselves. That’s good cheer.

The fourth reason for good cheer is, in some ways, my favorite, and that is the example of the Church,

Christians are not orphans. We are members of a huge, worldwide family. Some of the members are already home, some are on the way now, and others will come later. This gives me a real hope, because these people are as messed up as I am! And some of them are in heaven!

Did anyone ever have a worse attitude than Jonah? But Jonah’s in heaven, and that means people with bad attitudes can go to heaven. This doesn’t make a bad attitude good (because it isn’t), but the fact that a man like Jonah can make it home gives me hope of making it too.

To me, it would be a real bummer if everyone in the Church were like Joseph or Caleb or Daniel or Paul. These men seem almost perfect (they weren’t, of course, but they seem that way). In any event, we don’t measure up to them. But most Christians are not like these heroes of the faith. Most of us are more like Jonah. And we’re keeping up with the Jonahs! We’re going to heaven!

That’s good cheer.

Speaking of which, heaven is a great encouragement to grow in grace,

Nothing discourages a person more than futility. Why work hard if your work must come to nothing? Why fight when you cannot win? Why start something that you will not finish? How many players would still play hard if they knew they wouldn’t make the team? Futility cuts the nerve of all effort.

But our efforts are not futile. They don’t end in nothing; they end in glory. Pursue holiness without which no one will see the Lord. How many times have I heard that preached on in a scolding voice? I’ll never forget a young pastor lambasting his church. Speaking of Lot, he yelled, You’ve got to do better than he did!

Setting aside the man’s doctrine of salvation, I wonder why he didn’t look at the verse positively. Instead of bawling us out, why didn’t he encourage us? Why didn’t he say, If you pursue holiness, you will see the Lord! Because you will. A holy life means eternal life.

If you follow holiness, you’re going to heaven. You’re not going to fall short, you’re going to make it. Because God has said you will: He who perseveres to the end, the same shall be saved.

That’s good cheer in plenty!

Finally, we ought to have good cheer because Time is on our side,

Just the other day, I was talking to a man about how fast time flies. His daughter, whom I remember as a little girl, is now bordering on middle age.

Thinking this way usually makes us sad and wistful. But, for believers, it ought to have the opposite effect. We’re not getting, we’re getting ripe; we’re not slowing down, we’re speeding up. We’re nearly home and time is on our side.

The ticking you hear is not a time bomb; it’s an alarm clock, about to wake you up from a bad dream to a life full of happiness and love forever.

We have our setbacks—plenty of them. But Bonar reminds us, You have more encouragements than discouragements. Yes we do: far more. God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit are on our side; so are the Church, heaven, and time. When we remember these things, we can Follow the Lamb.

Just do it.